Held hostage by overpaid private cartel?

Jim Reynolds

Thursday

Oct 29, 2009 at 12:01 AMJul 1, 2012 at 11:11 AM

So what’s with this health care reform and the public option thing? Many of us who have private health insurance are OK, right?

Dear Editor,
So what’s with this health care reform and the public option thing? Many of us who have private health insurance are OK, right? Take the California Public Employees Retirement System, or “CalPERS” as it’s called. Being the second-largest health care purchaser in the United States should command some kind of purchasing power, you would think ... However, a direct quote from the CalPERS Retiree Edition, Fall 2009 states, “Since 2003, CalPERS members have seen their health care premiums rise by more than 60 percent. The truth is that the current health care system is unsustainable.”
We’re all understandably upset by the huge bonuses paid to the failed banks we’ve bailed out. But what about scenarios like Massachusetts’ highest-paid health services executive, Cleve Killingsworth of Blue Cross and Blue Shield? He received a $4.3 million compensation package, a 26-percent raise, after his company’s net income fell 49 percent, according to a Feb. 28, 2009 Boston Globe newspaper article. Imagine his bonus had business been really good! My understanding is that Mr. Killingsworth is just one of many such executives our health insurance premiums are royally supporting.
Are we being held hostage by an overpaid private health insurance cartel? What services do they perform that a public-administered system, not driven by huge profits, might duplicate for less? These insurance companies are spending a lot of our money fighting the public option, even though Americans with private insurance will still have the right to remain with their current private coverage. However, without a public option, real competition is eliminated and the currently uninsured could become government-subsidized business for the only game in town – the private insurance cartel. Let’s call our politicians and urge them to support a public option that gives all Americans a real choice in buying health care coverage.

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